When John Sutton asked if I would take a flyer and set up blogtheworldcup.net, I was happy to oblige. His idea was a collaborative World Cup site with schools ‘adopting’ a competing nation and developing a blog around that country’s performance in the tournament,  as well as other aspects such as its geography, culture and sporting heritage. The World Cup would present a  great opportunity for teachers and learners to explore and the blogging medium in a purposeful and engaging context. Momentum in the ‘Wings’ The site was set up using a multi-user WordPress install...

Brian Coates, our Becta Regional Advisor, visited the HT team in Northampton today to encourage us to extract the maximum benefit from the remaining time of Becta’s remit to ’inspire and lead the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning’. It was uplifting to see how Becta really are focused on making the most of their notice period. We will be running a development event for Northamptonshire schools in September to help them to make the most of ICT within the new Ofsted framework. The Self Review Framework – wherever it ends up – will continue...

In these tough financial times Local Authorities are under immense pressure to provide the same for less. In reality, the very fabric and identity of the Local Authority is changing. Savings, efficiencies and cuts to services both now and in the near future mean that the scope and range of local authority activity will be dramatically and permanently curtailed. It remains to be seen whether these structural changes will prove a catalyst in translating the government’s ‘Big Society’ rhetoric into the reality of families, networks, neighbourhoods and communities with more power and...

The recent announcement by Michael Gove outlining the process for setting up Free Schools, also set out a plan for reallocating £50 million of funding from the Harnessing Technology Grant to create a Standards and Diversity Fund. This is to provide provide capital funding for Free Schools up to 31 March 2011. A further reduction was announced yesterday to take this year’s funding down by a further £50m, allowing schools to reconfigure their broadband and IT infrastructure projects onto a more sustainable funding model For the Harnessing Technologies Team in Northamptonshire, this news will...